Partial evacuation of Airservices Melbourne Centre

Smoke in a computer room at our Melbourne Control Centre early this morning resulted in a brief partial evacuation by air traffic control staff.

The air traffic control tower at Melbourne Airport was not affected.

Airservices aviation fire fighters located at the airport attended and addressed within a matter of minutes.

No one was injured.

For safety reasons, aircraft in our southern flight information region were temporarily held on the ground at all ports. Airborne aircraft were controlled and managed normally for a landing and air traffic control tower services continued to be provided at all airports around the country.

At approximately 7.15am, the Melbourne Control Centre resumed operations and flights began to depart Melbourne and other ports.

As a result of this incident some delays are expected to occur throughout the morning to most flights in the network.

Airservices apologises for the delays and is working closely with the airlines to resume normal scheduling as soon as possible.

Airservices Melbourne Centre is one of Airservices two major centres and is the location from which Airservices manages the airspace over the southern half of Australia.